Good luck getting in…
Seattle Times: Problems continued to plague Washington’s health-insurance exchange website on Monday, following four days last week when consumers could not use the site because it had been taken down for repairs.
The Washington Healthplanfinder site went back online over the weekend, but it was taken down again yesterday morning. The problem last week was that users were running into intermittent slowness and brief outages.
The glitch today differed from the earlier problem, according to Bethany Frey, a spokeswoman for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, which operates Healthplanfinder. It stemmed from an outage at the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) Eligibility System, which is used to verify individuals’ eligibility for free and low-cost health-insurance coverage (Medicaid) through the state’s online insurance marketplace, Frey said. It was unclear yesterday afternoon when the site would be brought back online.
The exchange posted an update at 2 p.m. indicating that the site was still down and that staff were “working with DSHS to determine when the site will be available again.”
The ongoing technical problems have created a serious obstacle for consumers hoping to sign up for health insurance coverage before the Dec. 23 deadline to enroll in coverage that begins Jan. 1.
With the website down, people who are shopping for coverage cannot go on the site to compare health plans, find out if they are eligible for Medicaid coverage or premium subsidies, or complete an online application.
That leaves paper applications as an alternative. Frey noted that consumers “can still work on paper applications with a registered broker or navigator when the site is offline.”
DCG